Indoor putting green



Nov. 4 1924. 1,513,978

w. s. FLYNN ET AL INDOOR PUTT ING GREEN Filed Jan. 27, 922

W S JINVENTORS M .ivf y l A TORNEI/5 Patented Nov. 4, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT omer..

WILLIAM s. ELYN'N, or ARDMORE, PENNSYLVANIA, AND RoRERri` H. EANCHER, or roR'r CHESTER, NEW YORK.

INDOOR PUTTING GREEN.

Application Jed January 27, 1922. Serial No. 532,087.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that we, WILLIAM S. FLYNN and ROBERT H. FANCHER, citizens of the United States, residing, respectively, at

VArdmore, Pennsylvania, and Port Chester,

natural putting green, both Vwith respect tothe resiliency of the turf and also with respect to the effect upon the ball of the grass as ordinarily found upon the natural greens.

Another object is to provide an artificial putting green which may be laid upon any floor or other fiat surface without special provision therefor, and which, when thus laid, will present to the player substantially the same conditions which he would encounter upon the natural reen, whereby the practice which he can t us have indoors will be equally useful outdoors.

Other objects and important features of the invention will appear from the follow-l ing description and claims when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, in .which- Fig. l is a perspective view of a putt1ng green embodymg the present invention; and

Fig. 2 is a section showing the irregular structure of the sheet .of felt employed to provide' the putting surface.

In practicing the process of making the novel felt which presents a putting surface having the physical characteristics of a natural putting green, it is important at the various sta es of the process so to treat the material o which the felt is formed that the ultimate product will have the desired nap or roughness of fibre on the surface, this nap or roughness of fibre preferably consisting of irregularly directed and projecting hairs of which the felt is made, the amount of projection and irregularity of .the direction corresponding to the projection andA irregularity of direction of the grassupon a natural putting green, due regard being also had tothe stiffness and the retarding' action of the hair upon a ball as compared with that of grass, whereby the length of the nap or the roughness of the fibre is made to give a fastness or slowness corresponding to that of the natural green.

`We have found that a felt made from cattle hair and particularly from cattle hair comprising bristly fibres has, when treated by our novel process, a surface having the physical characteristic desired. In other words, this novel felt made by this novel process provides a putting surface that reacts upon the ball in substantially identically the same way that the ordinary putting green reacts upon the ball, whereby the player may obtain by indoor practice a skill which will avail him equally as well when playing outdoors.

In preparing this novel felt, in order both that it may have the desired characteristics hereinabove pointed out and that it may kee'p them over a long period of hard usage, it isY important not only that the cattle hair employed be selected with respect to its physical characteristics but that in preparing the raw material it be cleaned more thoroughly than stock used for other purposes. Moreover, in the carding process it is important that the stock be so handled that the fibres will be up-ended, We

havefound that the desired up-endingI may be effected by running the stock lon a Blemire lapper.

In order to retain the desired nap or roughness of fibre on the surface, this felt, unlike other felts, cannot be pressed in the finishing and attention must therefore be given to avoid wrinkles in the hardening and in the fulling processes. In the fulling process, in order to get the turf effect, it is necessary to use a stronger acid than with ordinary felts. We have found that the use of sulphuric acid at about 4 to 5 Tw. gives the desired result.

The felt is preferably dyed; for example, it may be dyed green to give a further simultation of a putting green, and` in dyeing the felt care must be had in the boiling step to see that it is carried on for exactly the proper length of time and no longer, and when this 1s done we havefound that the boiling step also aids in securing the desired surface characteristics.

As above pointed out, the felt is not pressed in the finishing operation but instead is merely stretched and dried.

After the felt is made, we have found that the fa'stness or slowness of the surface may be regulated through the use of a vacuum cleaner and therefore as a further step in the manufacture of this felt, we ordinarily employ a vacuum cleaner on the putting surface to regulate the length and evenness of the nap for putting.

Referring tothe drawings, a portion of an artificial putting green embodying the present invention is shown in perspective in Fig. 1 and in section in Fig. 2, and it will be noted that the felt 2, which provides the putting surface for the artificial green, is of substantial thickness to give the desired turf effect, and that a very substantial portion of the hairs 3 in the upper surface are 11p-ended so that they project from the surface but not all in the same direction, being irregularly directed ,and positioned with respect to each other, whereby a close simulation ofthe grass upon the natural green is obtained. Vln determining the amount of projection, regard is of course had to the relatively retarding effects of the hair and the grassvupon the ballso that the fast'ness or slownessl of the putting surface may be gaged to correspond with that of the natural een.

In order t at this Iartificial green may be laid upon a floor without special preparation therefor and still provide a hole into which the ball may be putted in the usual manner, it will be noted that a lnovel feature of the invention is the provision of a hole 4 of a depth substantially corresponding to the thickness of the felt of which the artificial putting green is made, with means in this hole to prevent rebounding of the ball.

Various means may of course be provided for this purpose, but we have found that a very simple and effective means comprises a series of pins 6 lhaving' slightly pointed ends, the pins standing .substantially vertical in the -hole and being so spaced that the ball when it drops into the hole will rest between the pins and one ofthe sides of the hole or possibl between pins alone. A convenient way o mounting these pins to give the desired result is to glue a strip 8 of suitable material and relatively4 thin as comparedvto the thicknessy of thefelt 2 upon the underside of the felt,'so that it covers the -hole 4 and provides a bottom therefor and to provide lthe pins 6 with heads 10 so that they may `be drlven through the strip 8.

An artificial putting green constructed in the manner above described and hereinabove illustrated has been found to provide a putting surface upon which putting practice ma be obtained indoors under conditions which will make it of great value tothe player when playing upon the natural greens.

Whatwe claim as new is:

l. An artificial putting green comprising a mat constructed when placed upon a floor or similar sup-port to present substantially its entire upper surface so that ay golf ball will rest thereon formed of a sheet of loosely felted animal hair, said sheet presenting a putting surface of irregularly directed and projecting bristly fibres.

2. An artificial putting green comprising a mat constructed when placed upon a oor or similar support to present substantially its entire upper surface so that a golf ball will rest thereon formed of a sheet of lunpressed loosely felted cattle hair, said sheet presenting a putting surface of irregularly directed and projecting hairs.

3. An artificial putting green comprising a mat constructed when placed upon a floor or similar support to present substantiall its entire upper surface so that a golf ba will rest thereon formed of -an unpressed sheet, of substantially thickness, of loosely felted animal hair, said sheet presenting a surface of irregularly directed and projecting hairs, whereby there is obtained a physical simulation of grass covered turf with an effect upon the olf ball similar to that produced by the orinary putting green.

4. An artificial putting green comprising a mat constructed when placed u on a floor or similar support to present su tantiall its entire uplper surface so that a golf ba will rest t ereon formed of -a sheet of loosely felted animal hair, said sheet presenting a putting surface of irregularly ldirected and projecting hairs and being provided with a hole of a depth substantially corresponding to the thickness of the sheet,

and means in said hole to prevent reboundv y ing of the ball.

5. An artificial putting green formed of a sheet of loosely felted animal hair, said sheet presenting a putting surface of'irre larly directed and projecting hairs and ing provided with a hole of a depth substantially correspondin to the thickness of the sheet, said hole aving therein pin projecting from its bottom to engage the ball and prevent rebounding thereof.

6. An artificial putting green comprising a mat constructed when placed u n a floor or similar support to present su stantiall its entire upper surface so that a golf bal will rest thereon formed of a sheet presenting a surface similar to that of a natural putting green, said sheet having therein a hole of a ,depth substantially corresponding Misma to the thickness of the sheet, and means Within the area covered by the hole to prevent rebounding of the ball.

7 An artificial putting green formed of a sheet presenting a, surface similar in its effect upon the ball to that of a natural een, said sheet having therein a hole of a e th I substantially corrresponding to the thickness of the sheet, and finsprojecting up from the bottom of the ole and so spaced as to receive the ball between them and to prevent its rebounding.

8. The process of making an artificial putting green, which comprises forming a ,sheet of loosely felted cattle hair in an un- A9. The process of mang an artificial putting green, which consists in thoroughly cleaning cattle hair of comparatively bristly fibre, carding the hair in such manner as to up-end the libre, eltin the hair and hardening and fulling lthe elt, boiling and d ing the felt, stretching and drying the elt Without pressin and then going over the surface of the elt with a vacuum cleaner to secure the desired length and evenness of nap.

10. An artificial putting green formed of a sheet of substantiall uniform thickness of loosely felted animal air, and having upon its surface irregularly directed and projecting loosely fibres to simulate the gracovered surface of a puttin green.

Signed at-New York, N. ig., this 26th day of January, 1922. f

WILLIAM S. FLYNN. ROBERT H. FANCHER. 

